Assorted content to start your week. – Jim Hightower writes that the risk of technology displacing workers is ultimately just one instance of the wider problem of corporate greed. And the New York Times is examining how the principle of total corporate control is the basis for the Trump administration’s handling of regulation. – Ed ...

Assorted content to end your week. – Edward Harrison comments on the business-backed push to rebrand corporate control and crony capitalism as freedom. And Ryan Cooper points out that the concept of deregulation ultimately serves only to concentrate power in the hands of the wealthy few: Government regulations can be good or bad. But for ...

Assorted content to end your week. – Rachel Sherman writes about the steps taken by wealthy Americans to hide how much they spend to paper over income inequality: Over lunch in a downtown restaurant, Beatrice, a New Yorker in her late 30s, told me about two decisions she and her husband were considering. They were ...

This and that for your Thursday reading. – David Leonhardt looks at the glaring growth of inequality in the U.S., while Matt Bruening charts how that trend is based entirely on capital ownership. And in the face of the Republicans’ plan for another round of giveaways to the rich, the New York Times’ editorial board ...

Assorted content to start your week. – Paul Buchheit discusses the U.S.’ combination of increasing inequality, systematic tax evasion and false promises of social mobility. Michael Savage reports that even UK Cons are recognizing that a refusal to ensure that the rich pay their fair share makes for bad politics. And Steven Klees highlights how ...

Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Cole Eisen points out how Sears – like far too many other businesses – has deliberately depleted employees’ pension funds while extracting billions of dollars for executives and shareholders: Sears Canada’s woes stem from what appears to be a methodical process of value extraction. While Sears’s pension funding ...

Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Ryan Meili writes about the fundamental importance of trust in both politics and medicine – and the corrosive effects of corporate donations in both: When we talk about the problems with political donations, we’re not really talking about campaign financing. We’re talking about something much more fundamental. We’re ...

Here, on how a misguided war against “red tape” contributed to the deaths of dozens in the Grenfell Tower fire – and how we’re at risk of becoming casualties as well. For further reading…– Details about the UK’s obsession with red tape can be found in archives including the home page and housing and construction ...

Assorted content to end your week. – Wanda Wyporska writes about the scandal of growing inequality and the separation of the ultra-rich from the rest of society. And Richard Reeves calls for the people with the most wealth and privilege to stop denying the advantages they enjoy compared to the vast majority of people. – ...

This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Martin Kenney comments on Canada’s continuing role in “snow washing” offshore tax evasion. The Conference Board of Canada examines the massive gap between what Canada should receive in public revenues, and what’s actually taken in to keep our society functioning. And Kamal Ahmed highlights how employers are ...

Assorted content to end your week. – Bruce Campbell points out how Donald Trump’s blind hatred toward any type of regulation can impose costs in Canada and elsewhere to the extent we’re bound by trade deals which make “harmonization” an expected standard. And Pia Eberhardt recognizes that there’s no point in locking ourselves into the ...

This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Terry Glavin argues that Canada’s response to Donald Trump’s Muslim ban needs to consist of more than the platitudes offered by Justin Trudeau, while Tom Parkin and Chantal Hebert point out that even Trudeau’s words to date have unduly downplayed Trump’s dangers. And Andrew Coyne writes about ...

This and that for your Sunday reading. – Bessma Momani writes that Donald Trump’s plan to leave the U.S. at the mercy of unregulated financial markets figures to cause another crisis comparable to – or worse than – that of 2008: Nearly 10 years ago, the U.S. financial industry was exposed as a glorified Ponzi ...

PHOTOS: Deputy Premier Sarah Hoffman, a photo that wasn’t taken yesterday, obviously, but has the advantage of having been taken by your blogger. Below: Wildrose electricity and renewables critic Don MacIntyre, Progressive Conservative interim Leader Ric McIver and the late PC premier Ralph Klein, author of the costly-to-Albertans scheme the NDP is asking the courts ...

Paul Martin’s official prime ministerial portrait was unveiled on Parliament Hill on Wednesday. During the ceremony, he was referred to as the greatest finance minister in our history—lavish praise indeed. But deserving? I believe so. He did at least three things that, in my mind, place him in that rarefied position. First, he balanced the ...

Paul Martin’s official prime ministerial portrait was unveiled on Parliament Hill on Wednesday. During the ceremony, he was referred to as the greatest finance minister in our history—lavish praise indeed. But deserving? I believe so. He did at least three things that, in my mind, place him in that rarefied position. First, he balanced the ...

Paul Martin’s official prime ministerial portrait was unveiled on Parliament Hill on Wednesday. During the ceremony, he was referred to as the greatest finance minister in our history—lavish praise indeed. But deserving? I believe so. He did at least three things that, in my mind, place him in that rarefied position. First, he balanced the ...

This and that for your Sunday reading. – Steve Roth discusses how inequality and excessive concentration of wealth result in less growth for everybody – even as the researchers finding that correlation try to report the opposite. – Meanwhile, Davide Furceri and Prakash Loungani examine how loose financial and capital regulation lead to more severe ...

Assorted content for your weekend reading. – I’ll start in on my own review of the NDP’s election campaign over the next few days, focusing on what I see as being the crucial decisions as the campaign played out. But for those looking for some of what’s been written already, I’ll point out recaps and ...

Recently Morris W. Dorosh had a piece published in the Financial post: Tom Mulcair’s incoherent farm policy. In it he questions Mulcair’s logic and math, when discussing agriculture and supply management. Incoherence is the expected thing from Mulcair. His arithmetic seems a bit off. Supply management nationally provided 16.9 per cent of farm-gate cash revenue in ...

Recently Morris W. Dorosh had a piece published in the Financial post: Tom Mulcair’s incoherent farm policy. In it he questions Mulcair’s logic and math, when discussing agriculture and supply management. Incoherence is the expected thing from Mulcair. His arithmetic seems a bit off. Supply management nationally provided 16.9 per cent of farm-gate cash revenue in ...

Recently Morris W. Dorosh had a piece published in the Financial post: Tom Mulcair’s incoherent farm policy. In it he questions Mulcair’s logic and math, when discussing agriculture and supply management. Incoherence is the expected thing from Mulcair. His arithmetic seems a bit off. Supply management nationally provided 16.9 per cent of farm-gate cash revenue in ...

So the ride-sharing app Uber is urging Vancouverites to sign a petition on its site to put pressure on the City to allow Uber to operate. An ad for the petition invaded my Twitter feed and I decided to take a closer look. Here’s the petition with my commentary. Spoiler: no, I’m not signing. Uber ...

Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Rick Perlstein observes that Ronald Reagan’s most lasting contribution to American politics may be his admonition not to recognize flaws or past sins which might require serious responses – and that democratic discourse in the U.S. and elsewhere has yet to recover: (T)he baseline is this moment in ...